Angela Rye is warning that bot farms and fake online profiles are being used to stir up division in Black communities, and she is urging voters not to wait until November 3 to cast their ballots. Rye made the comments in an interview with TheGrio’s Natasha S. Alford.
Looking back at the 2016 election, Rye said “Russian intelligence saw places where they could sow seeds of discord within our communities,” pointing to issues like immigration and reparations. She said operatives “created Blackface, electronic Blackface online, and created whole profiles of people,” when in reality, sometimes “it was actually a bot on a bot farm.”
The tactic, she said, is emotional. “I’m gonna speak to your trauma. And it’s manipulative,” Rye said, describing the approach.
A Pattern on the Record
Rye’s warning tracks with a 2019 report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, which found that Russia’s Internet Research Agency showed an “overwhelming operational emphasis on race,” and targeted African Americans more than any other group. One fake page, “Blacktivist,” drew 11.2 million engagements on Facebook.
Nor is the problem limited to foreign actors. On the October 14 episode of her weekly YouTube series, Cite Your Source, guest Devine Prince of the United States Freedmen Project discussed how Democrats, Republicans, artists, and others have also used bot farms to shape online conversation.
Cite Your Source brings together guests with opposing views and features an on-set fact-checker armed with a buzzer. Rye said she hopes viewers walk away thinking, “I can fact-check at home, too.”
She was also critical of the news media’s shift toward conflict. “We used to go to the news to watch content that would inform us, help us understand what’s going on,” Rye said. “So it’s for ratings and not for information.”
“I am begging you, do not wait until November 3rd. That is just too late,” Rye’s message to voters with Election Day days away, adding that voters holding absentee ballots should still take them to a precinct or local election office.
For now, the reminder is to check the source before sharing the post, and make a plan to vote.
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